Chocolates and Poems for Saint Valentine's

I've never been much of a true romantic, maybe hopeless and in turn cynical. I don't highly value commercial holidays, I think heart shaped boxes are a rip-off, and I once gagged upon receiving a necklace in the form of a heart. So I suppose that makes me a hipster, a brat, una pija, and a bah humbug. This Valentine's Day was one of the few that I've been with a "special someone", although with my boyfriend off to Kazakhstan, there isn't much love happening around here. In that case, I decided to celebrate by writing a poem. Well quite frankly my motivation was to enter it in a VDay contest (I love winning!) at Ancha Castilla. Update from this afternoon: I lost to a native Spanish speaker - go figure- so now I may share my witty, sarcastic love story with you all.

You'll turn your back on me? Fine, I'll continue to look at it, wide and so very "Spanish."

Wait for you? I will, besides a strong love grows with patience and needs to mature as does a good cheese.

San Francisco, Fran, San Fran, will you pass me the saffron? Just a little. I am going to make a paella...with love.

If you hear me Saint Valentine, please choose me, so that I may nest with my lovebird under the windmills.

Lovebirds in the Northern Coast of Morocco.

Paris, France. Bridge connecting the Left Bank to the Notre Dame Cathedral, "Padlocks of Love"

If you do choose to celebrate in this locura of a holiday, at least buy your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, mistress, borg or ewok, something that they will enjoy eating. I recommend these artisan chocolate companies who are really taking to heart the practice of bean-to-bar and/or package design, as well as production in limited quantity. Additionally, they watch their environmental footprint, obtaining their products from single bean sources and collaborating with small cocoa farms at fair prices.